You might also like to meet up with other ākonga (learners) at New Brighton's regular Kawhe & Kōrero sessions. Or just say a cheerful "kia ora" to a staff member the next time you visit us - we love that!

It's not strictly necessary to write in a language in order to speak it, but for second language learners writing can really help cement some of the ideas, vocabularly and structure of a language and help them to learn.

In this post we'll be suggesting some resources to help support the use of written (or typed) te reo Māori.

Te reo Māori language learning resources

You'll want to make sure your grammar and spelling is kei te tika, so try:

Pikihuia Awards for Māori Writers

If you get good enough at writing in te reo, maybe you could even become a published writer? Awarded every other year, with the winners announced on Te rā o te reo Māori / Māori language day, a number of prizes are awarded for pieces written in te reo Māori and these are published together in a volume, the latest, due out soon will be volume 13 of the series.

More information

]]>Popular Culture picks from our latest newsletterhttps://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/blogs/post/popular-culture-picks-from-our-latest-newsletter/
Thu, 12 Sep 2019 03:00:04 +0000https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/?p=175986Our Popular Culture newsletter has selected new reads from the worlds of television, music, sport, film and the internet, and featured favourites you might have missed.

It's a slightly different panel line-up than the one that was advertised at this Owning History discussion on a sunny Sunday at The Piano.

Ngāi Tahu leader, Tahu Pōtiki's passing earlier in the week means that his cousin, academic Sacha McMeeking is now unavailable, presumably attending the tangi in Otago. Her place is taken by colleague Jessica MacLean (Ngāti Kuri, Ngāti Hine, Clan O'Hara, Clan MacLean), a lecturer and "emerging academic" at Aotahi School of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury.

The other two panellists, Simon Winchester and Vincent O'Malley barely need an introduction but panel chair, University of Canterbury's Peter Field gives the audience plenty of background on both, running through O'Malley's academic credentials - the first person to get a PhD in New Zealand studies, his 20 years experience as an historian - and giving a potted history of Winchester's life that reads like some kind of Boy's Own Adventure, but for grown ups. This includes being expelled from school for "illlicit science experiments", his time in Washington D. C. during Watergate, his roles as writer, journalist and broadcaster, and his O. B. E. (which Winchester by way of interjection says stands for "Other Buggers' Efforts").

Peter Field, Jessica Maclean, Simone Winchester and Vincent O'Malley

Field opens the discussion with the question of whether history actually can be owned. And what does that mean?

O'Malley says that owning history is really just about being honest with ourselves... especially about the bits we'd rather forget. It's about being mature enough as a nation to accept that history - throwing some homegrown poetry into the mix, in the form of Allen Curnow's 'The Skeleton of the Great Moa':

"Not I, some child, born in a marvellous year / Will learn the trick of standing upright here."

More than that, says O'Malley, acknowledging that history is the basis of genuine reconciliation. We can't have a dialogue without understanding that history. He explains this idea with a local example, of returning to Christchurch in 2011 (O'Malley formerly studied at Canterbury University) and being unable to understand where he was due to the lack of familiar landmarks in the postquake city - without the context of the surrounding buildings he couldn't make sense of the streets. When then Prime Minister, John Key said New Zealand was "settled peacefully" he wasn't being honest.

Winchester, who now lives in the United States had examples of this from his adopted home, certainly slavery, for one, but also the internment of 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent in camps during WWII is another. And Americans are not taught about it in school, leading to widespread ignorance on the topic.

History writer, Simon Winchester

The topic of education of the general populace of its history is one that will come up multiple times during the discussion.

MacLean brings it back to New Zealand history, expanding on O'Malley's earlier point: There's a reason a Crown apology is the first part of the Treaty process. And what's true for a nation is also true at a personal level, "we know it in our own interpersonal lives that when we muck up, owning what we've done is the first step".

Field, surely looking to elicit some emphatic denial, then suggested that the panel might be emphasising the negative, since New Zealand's history is quite positive in contrast to that other countries, like his own country's legacy of slavery.

O'Malley took the bait explaining that "deconstructing the myths of a nation is what historians do", and that that narrative - the "aren't they lucky they were colonised by us" one - was not one that Māori shared. The idea that after a bit of conflict (The Land Wars) that everyone settled down and lived happily every after was simply not true for Māori who had to live with the consequences. In 1850 Māori were leading the economy. By the 1860s, almost overnight, this was gone. The tendency to pat ourselves on the back by saying "look at Australia - it's so much worse there" is just an excuse to avoid owning up to our own history.

So where are we as a nation on the path to owning our own history?

MacLean points out that at her high school the only history option was Tudor history. She only learned about Parihaka at university. "There's a lot of good will... but we're not there yet".

Winchester, who seems a man overwhelmed with an abundance of curiosity (a good trait to have in his line of work, I suppose), innocently asks if we've ever considered changing the name of our country, suggesting somewhat misguidedly that Australia has a more "neutral name", as it means "land of the Austral region" (in Latin). Muttering amongst the audience suggests that many are in agreement with MacLean when she points out that Aboriginal Australians might not agree on the name's neutrality.

The topic of the book that Winchester is working on, about the ownership of land, comes up. He's been travelling the world asking questions about different aspects of land ownership in places like the U. S., Holland, Latvia, Ukraine, and Scotland as well as Australia and New Zealand. What might we tell him about land in New Zealand?

For his troubles Winchester (and the audience) gets a very abbreviated history of land alienation by the Crown from O'Malley, who has been working in Treaty claims for 26 years - this is literally his life's work.

New Zealand Historian Vincent O'Malley

Before 1840, 66 million acres of land was in Māori ownership. Locally, Kemp's purchase - equivalent to 1/3 of the country, 20 million acres - was acquired for what would be £4000 in today's money. The Native reserves that were part of the agreement of that purchase were only a few thousand acres.

In the 1850s there started to be resistance to this wholesale loss of Māori land and the wars followed. The consequence of which was that the Crown were then "justified" in confiscating even more land. And The Māori Land Court which O'Malley describes as "an engine of destruction" moved even more land from Māori to Crown ownership as land that had previously been held collectively was passed into individual title, and once this happened it was so much easier for it to be sold, destroying whole communities.

The 1975 Land March was a turning point, the Waitangi Tribunal was established and 10 years later it was empowered to investigate historical claims which opened the floodgates. Most of the Waitangi Claims material isn't published and so most New Zealanders don't know that history.

Winchester's reaction to the news that most of this is not taught in our schools was incredulity, "this is outrageous". Well, quite.

MacLean adds that the Minister for Education, Chris Hipkins, has refused to implement curriculum change because schools can teach this history if they want to. But MacLean points out that under the current system it's still not happening so that's not really good enough.

Back on the topic of ownership, MacLean points out that the notion of ownership is culturally bound and partly a misunderstanding of what constitutes ownership has lead to some of our historical issues. She says that often when land was sold by Māori the sale was one of a usufruct nature, where it was the right to use the land that was being sold rather than outright ownership. Winchester seems delighted that someone has used the word "usufruct", while admitting that it is "a really ugly word".

Field wonders if some of our reluctance to learn New Zealand history is due to cultural cringe and the idea that "somewhere else is more important" (like Tudor England, perhaps?)

MacLean responds with one of the most unexpected yet deeply resonant (with me, anyway) analogies I've heard in a while, comparing New Zealand history with her first ever CD purchase, which was by New Zealand band, Supergroove. At that time (the 1990s) there was a huge amount of cultural cringe around Kiwi music - this has taken decades to move on from.

O'Malley points out that we have an incredible, rich history people with characters like Wiremu Tamihana (aka the Kingmaker), who was one of the most remarkable statesmen in New Zealand, ever. New Zealand history is not boring. But then he's made a career of researching it so either he's terribly biased or terribly knowledgeable... or both.

Winchester's own experience with our cultural cringe comes in the form of an interview with The Listener (said interview is in the last issue), wherein the interviewer asked if there would be a chapter about New Zealand in his new book... in an almost pleading way. I think we've all read enough articles and interviews with visiting celebrities to know that this absolutely happened. The only question is whether Winchester was asked if our scenery was beautiful enough and if he'd found the people warm and friendly. I do wonder sometimes if we should just have an official greeter at international arrivals wearing a "DO YOU LIKE US, FOREIGN PERSON?" t-shirt and be done with it.

Field nudges the discussion in another direction next, suggesting that New Zealand is a marriage of two very different cultures but that maybe those differences are what makes it work?

MacLean speaks a bit about being of mixed heritage, with deep roots on both sides, which is an increasingly common thing and, according to Statistics New Zealand, will continue to be so prompting this from MacLean "Is it arrogant of me to say maybe I'm the future?"

If it is, the audience isn't holding it against her so much as cheering her on.

MacLean also points out that common thread running through her Scots/Irish/Māori whakapapa is "an antipathy towards the English".

Winchester, who seemingly can't help interviewing people, even when he's on a panel with them, is curious as to whether the Irish/British lineage of O'Malley or MacLean translates into a concern with regards to Brexit. O'Malley acknowledges the potential for catastrophe while MacLean taps into the zeitgeist saying she views Brexit with "a mixture of amusement and despair".

The topic of te reo Māori comes up and MacLean, who is not fluent but learning, again uses personal examples to illustrate history. Her grandmother moved to the city in the 1930s - like many she thought the best way for Māori to get ahead was to assimilate. Speaking te reo in schools was still physically punished and so MacLean's mother was of a generation that lost the language. There were no kōhanga reo or kura kaupapa in those days. There has been massive backlash against the idea of te reo Māori being compulsory in schools, so yes, revitalisation is great, but we're not there yet.

The Q & A portion of the hour was a real mixed bag. Someone asked about the relationship between history and political science which prompted MacLean to point out that though co-ownership of the history is important she's wary of "an educative burden falling on Māori alone."

Another questioner, whose agenda may have been showing, asked to what extent Māori were owning their pre-European history? This seemed to be in response to the focus on the negative aspects of Pākehā-Māori history. Again MacLean was clear that there was a lot of focus on pre-European history but that statements on such are "very tribally bound". Not to mention that the ways that Māori have of looking at the past aren't necessarily that accessible to non-Māori, and include oral traditions, creative traditions and allegory. Moreover discussions about Māori history happen on marae and in Māori communities. Just because we don't see it in the public arena doesn't mean it's not happening.

Māori academic, Jessica MacLean

Another question from the audience was a challenge and a provocation, with a man of Waitaha descent wanting to know when Ngāi Tahu were going to own up to their history. Waitaha were the earlier inhabitants of Te Waipounamu, the South Island and along with Hāwea and Rapuwai and were largely subsumed within Ngāi Tahu, which has its origins on the East Coast of the North Island. He and I both were disappointed that Sacha McMeeking wasn't there to answer his question - I would have loved to hear what she'd say on that. And this question really exposed the layered nature of history and its associated narratives.

Field posed a last question too - what has been the greatest pushback each panellist has received?

For O'Malley it's been from Hobson's Pledge but he looks on that as a badge of honour - if he didn't get pushback from them he'd be worried.

For Winchester it would be the time that he was bundled into a car in Ireland in 1977 and put "on trial" due to the "anti-Protestant" sentiments in some of his reporting. He was "found guilty", had a gun held to his head, and the trigger was pulled - it wasn't loaded.

MacLean, knowing that she couldn't possibly follow a story like that simply said "I can't beat that. Just gonna sit this one out".

Prior to taking questions from the audience, O'Malley had the opportunity to share his 3 point plan for improving knowledge of New Zealand history amongst New Zealanders and they seem fitting points to end on:

Protect sites that connect us to history. Many scenes of historic battles in this country have a road running through them named after the general who commanded the British forces in said battle.

"Teach the bloody history". It's as simple as that. Children are crying out to learn this history, it's the adults that are holding them back.

Make more resources about New Zealand history for kids and adults, websites, books - more are needed.

These seem achieveable. Owning the history means that it'll be ours to share. So let's do that.

Find books in our collection by:

WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

WORD Christchurch presents Shifting Points of View — a spectacular line-up of New Zealand and international speakers to warm you up and get you thinking. Shifting Points of View runs from Sunday 18 August to Saturday 14 September 2019. Visit our page on WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View for more information, previews, reviews, and WORD reading.

We'll be having a some Ngā Pakiwaitara (bilingual storytimes) sessions with even more te reo, delivered by Whaea Rochelle from our Ngā Ratonga Māori team. Join her at Wāhi Whānau | Family Place, Hapori | Community, Level 1, Tūranga at the below times and days

]]>Bad Diaries Salon: The unabashed reality of a younger you – WORD Christchurchhttps://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/blogs/post/bad-diaries-salon-the-unabashed-reality-of-a-younger-you-word-christchurch/
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 00:38:08 +0000https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/?p=4871384OId photos and old diaries are both potentially cringey for similar reasons - they show us the unedited truth of what we were like when we were younger. Memory is often a good deal less confronting; the details may be fuzzy, rose-coloured glasses may be worn. We can tell ourselves that our teenage angst was of a mostly restrained variety, and our haircuts and fashion were fairly unremarkable.

But then you see a photo of what you wore to your first school disco, or read an entry from your diary of the same era and realise that this was all lies. You are wearing a mullet and a puffball skirt. Your diary includes a close reading of the lyrics of a Bros song. Your memory has not so much been playing tricks on you as it has protected you from being in a state of feeling permanently mortified. Thank you, memory. THANK YOU.

So spare a thought for the brave souls who took part in the Bad Diaries Salon at Space Academy on Saturday night as part of WORD Christchurch's Shifting Points of View programme. They not only confronted their younger selves, as represented in diaries, journals, poetry and letters - but did so into a microphone, on a stage, in front of other people. If that's not heroism then I don't know what is.

This event was MCed by writer Tracy Farr and she explained the history of Bad Diaries Salon. There have been a dozen salons in Australia and New Zealand with the first in our country taking place exactly a year ago. She also runs us through the rules of Bad Diaries Salon:

The readings are not to be written for the purpose of Bad Diaries Salon and they are not for publication.

Each reader riffs on the theme of the night. The theme for this salon is "shift".

So I can't really say what was shared but I can say that there was a great diversity in tone and delivery from the poignant and the heartfelt, to diary entries that were quite rightly read with a healthy dose of self-mockery. There we semi-colons and asides (and even an acrostic), jealousies and first loves, fear, hope, and ambition - lots of real, human emotion (though some of it, one suspects, heavily influenced by teenage hormones).

Though I can't tell you the content of any of the stories shared by the participating writers, I can tell you what shape of doodle I drew around each of their names - a cryptic emblem referencing some aspect of their reading.

Karen Healey: A frothy shape - something between a cupcake and a cloud

As for the theme of "shift" this came from a variety of different angles, be it the shift in time between the time of writing and the time of reading, the shift from innocence to knowledge, shifting locations, shifting expectations of yourself, a shift in the ambitions you have for yourself.

It was a fantastic way to spend an evening. Because if we can't laugh at our own embarrassments (because our memories are protecting us so diligently) then we may as well enjoy those, freely shared, of someone else.

If you have a chance to attend a Bad Diaries Salon event, I highly recommend it. Or you could try the following which have something of a similar flavour:

WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

WORD Christchurch presents Shifting Points of View — a spectacular line-up of New Zealand and international speakers to warm you up and get you thinking. Shifting Points of View runs from Sunday 18 August to Saturday 14 September 2019. Visit our page on WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View for more information, previews, reviews, and WORD reading.

]]>Owning history – WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View, Saturday 31 August 1pmhttps://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/blogs/post/owning-history-word-christchurch-shifting-points-of-view-saturday-31-august-1pm/
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 04:15:52 +0000https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/?p=4849028Many years ago I had tickets to see Simon Winchester at an earlier incarnation of the WORD Christchurch Festival. Then some earthquakes happened and venues were few and far between and I got a refund because that event never went ahead.

So whether or not to attend one of his upcoming WORD Christchurch appearances was something of a no-brainer for me. Winchester's story of the development of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Surgeon of Crowthorne, is one of the most enjoyable, riveting history books I've ever read.

And then if you add in Vincent O'Malley, a man who is articulate and passionate about the history of our own country and improving our collective understanding of the colonial context it was born from - well, that's a combination you won't want to miss.

I have heard McMeeking speak on a couple of occasions now and she is always keenly intelligent, thoughtful, and inspiring. So these three all together will be a treat. I'm keen to hear what they have to say on how we understand our history, and what effect it can have on how we make decisions today. How do you foster a deeper understanding of complex, multi-layered stories, as surely all histories are? The challenges facing us today are great - can history show us the way forward? Or are we merely doomed to repeat it?

Maybe some of my various questions will find answers during this session. In any case, I'm looking forward to the conversation.

WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

WORD Christchurch presents Shifting Points of View — a spectacular line-up of New Zealand and international speakers to warm you up and get you thinking. Shifting Points of View runs from Sunday 18 August to Saturday 14 September 2019. Visit our page on WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View for more information, previews, reviews, and WORD reading.

]]>Bad Diaries are back!https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/blogs/post/bad-diaries-are-back/
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:07:30 +0000https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/?p=4848748One of the things I was kicking myself for missing out on at last year's WORD Christchurch festival was the Bad Diaries Salon. So you can imagine my happiness at seeing its return to WORD Christchurch's Shifting Points of View Programme.

What is the Bad Diaries Salon? Started in Melbourne by Jenny Ackland, this is a series of events at which writers read from the good, the bad and the scandalous of their personal diaries and early writing.

The writers appearing in this instalment of the event are diverse selection of local talent, with children's author and poet Ben Brown, novelist and WORD Christchurch director Rachael King, YA author Karen Healey and poet Tusiata Avia. The event will be hosted by novelist Tracy Farr.

I have recently had the experience of digging out my own youthful journal-keeping efforts and it was a very "cringe-heavy" experience. The great thing about the Bad Diaries Salon isn't that it won't be cringey - only that there'll be a degree of separation (a lack of personal responsibility on my part) from said cringiness.

I do love a bit of self-revelatory, confessional-style writing (anything by David Sedaris, The Princess Diarist etc.) and I expect this event will deliver in spades. The only question is which variety will be on offer? Teenage crushes? Overwrought poetry? "Deep" philosophical insights? Or perhaps the crushing banality of "Things I bought at the mall"? Or something else entirely? There's no way to know, and sadly, due to the rules around the event, I won't be able to tell you afterward so you'll just have to head along and see/hear for yourself.

Find out more

WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

WORD Christchurch presents Shifting Points of View — a spectacular line-up of New Zealand and international speakers to warm you up and get you thinking. Shifting Points of View runs from Sunday 18 August to Saturday 14 September 2019. Visit our page on WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View for more information, previews, reviews, and WORD reading.

]]>Win tickets to NZSO Podium series – Transfigurationhttps://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/blogs/post/win-tickets-to-nzso-podium-series-transfiguration/
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 23:18:03 +0000https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/?p=4838930The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's 2019 season continues next month with a concert featuring works by Rachmaninov, Richard Strauss and Wagner at The Christchurch Town Hall Auditorium on Saturday 14 September.

Canadian Louis Lortie will be joined by acclaimed Israeli conductor Asher Fisch for the NZSO’s Transfiguration concert

Lortie, hailed by The New York Times as “mesmerising” and by The Seattle Times as “brilliant”, will perform one of Rachmaninov’s most famous works, the romantic Piano Concerto No. 2. The concerto is the basis for the song 'Full Moon and Empty Arms' performed by Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan, and Eric Carmen’s top 10 hit 'All By Myself'.

Since last performing with the NZSO in 1994, Lortie has gone from strength to strength as a distinguished and virtuosic pianist. He performs with the world’s leading orchestras, as along with an acclaimed recording career. He continues to spellbind audiences and critics with his interpretations of great composers, including Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel and Liszt.

In Transfiguration, his NZSO debut, Maestro Fisch will also conduct Richard Strauss’ Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), an impassioned tone poem of a dying artist’s reflection on life.

Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser is taken from his riveting opera of lust, love and redemption where a troubadour becomes of the lover of the goddess Venus.

We have 2 double passes to give away to library members. All you need to do is tell us Rachmaninov's first name and fill out your details in the competition entry form. Entries close at 5pm on Thursday 5 September and winners will be announced on Friday 6 September.

Competition Closed: this competition ran from 23 August to 5 September 2019.